​GOOD MORNING INDIA!

DAILY NEWS UPDATES ON ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

EDITOR’s PICK

The government on Thursday crossed another important benchmark when it crossed the 13,000 mark in its attempts to electrify villages in rural India. With 13,002 out of 18,452 villages electrified as on March 30, 2017, the promise to provide ‘Power To All” seems a close reality now.

Decks have been cleared for setting up of the much awaited nine million tonne per annum refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan. A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed shortly for setting up of this Rs 37000 crore refinery project that will come up as a joint venture between central PSU Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and the state government

India on Thursday declared its “Association” status with the International Energy Agency (IEA). At a brief ceremony in New Delhi, a formal letter in this regard was handed over to Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director, IEA by two senior union ministers of the government---Mr Dharmendra Pradhan and Mr Piyush Goyal

POWER/COAL/MINES/RE

In what marks a headtrick with three back to back announcements on commissioning of new units, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on Thursday announced yet another successful commissioning of a coal-based supercritical thermal unit of 800 MW in Karnataka

Lok Sabha today witnessed noisy scenes over the power situation in the country, with Congress alleging that the government’s promise of connecting every home with electricity was a tall claim and Power Minister Piyush Goyal hitting back saying it was UPA’s failure

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Chairman, Dilip Rath mooted the idea of solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in each of the Dairy Cooperative Societies in the country for meeting their energy needs as well as earning extra money.

The Centre’s power distribution reforms scheme, Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), has helped discoms reduce their subsidy dependence on state governments owing to improved liquidity position, a report released by the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) said on Wednesday.

Lenders led by Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and private equity firm Guggenheim Partners have seized control of Mukul Kasliwal’s 400 MW Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Project on the Narmada river after the company defaulted on its loans.

Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday as U.S. crude inventories grew less than expected, supply disruptions continued in Libya and the OPEC-led output cut by producing countries looked likely to be extended.

The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 50.73 per barrel (bbl) on 29.03.2017

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s India unit and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), the country’s second largest fuel retailer, may team up to help the latter set up an energy trading unit in Singapore, two officials aware of the development said.

Even as China is firmly entrenched in Sri Lanka's Hambantota port, the island nation has three other major ports -- Colombo, Trincomalee and Kankesanthurai -- where India could collaborate for development, a Sri Lankan Minister has said

Ministry of Railways in a statement to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday said that the railways already provides online concessional ticket booking facility to senior citizens, physically challenged and accredited press correspondents

Reliance Infrastructure has received National Highways Authority of India’s consent for its planned Rs 3,000 crore-Infrastructure Investment Fund, making it the first road developer to get the approval, which clears the way for it to hit the capital market